In a new video, Dara Purvis, a professor of law at Penn State, summarizes the legal significance of Attorney General Eric Holder's memo on same-sex marriage issued Feb. 10, and its relation to the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in the Windsor case, which ruled that the federal government must provide benefits to same-sex couples married in states that allow such unions.

Dara Purvis, a professor of law at Penn State, summarizes the legal meaning of Attorney General Eric Holder's memo on same-sex marriage issued Feb. 10, and its relation to the Supreme Court's decision in the Windsor case.

Penn State Law

Purvis is a scholar of family law, contracts, feminist legal theory, and sexuality and the law. She is particularly interested in the intersection between gender stereotypes and the law. Her most recent work examines gendered impacts of the law and proposes neutralizing reforms, most recently in the context of how the law defines parenthood.

Prior to joining Penn State Law, Purvis was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and a visiting fellow at the University of Kent Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality. A former editor-in-chief of theYale Law Journal, she clerked for Judge Gerald E. Lynch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Raymond C. Fisher, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.